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Ohio Power Siting Board planning hearing on power line next week

Staff report
Published 8:15 p.m. ET May 14, 2014

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A view of the Sandusky River in front of the main house at Peninsular Farms is shown in 2013. The property includes 3 miles of riverfront. It also is a wildlife preserve where owner Don Miller invites birders onto the property each spring.
(Photo:
File photo
)

FREMONT – Residents will have an opportunity to tell a state agency what they think about a proposal for First­Energy to run a power line along the Ohio Turnpike.

The Ohio Power Siting Board will have a public hearing at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Fremont Middle School gym, 1250 North St., on FirstEnergy’s proposal.

The siting board will ultimately approve or deny the power line plan.

This comes after First­Energy changed its preferred route for the 30-mile line to avoid running through Peninsular Farms, a historic farm along an undeveloped stretch of the Sandusky River in Sandusky Township.

Peninsular Farms was the site of the Whitaker Reserve — also spelled Whittaker in historical documents — home of James and Elizabeth Whitaker, the first white settlers in Ohio, according to Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center records. The land also is considered a valuable stopover site for migratory birds and is home to bald eagles.

FirstEnergy’s new preferred route for the Hayes-West Fremont Transmission Line will run along the Ohio Turnpike to Ohio 510 in Riley Township and move southeast into Erie County.

“The line, to be strung primarily on single wood poles,would alleviate impacts to existing transmission facilities in the area due to the retirement of several generation facilities,” according to the siting board.

FirstEnergy filed an application in December with the siting board for this to be the primary route for the 138-kilovolt line.